This is some close cultivation I am doing, so air circulation is limited… Also I am co-hosting 2 plants of Bitter Gourd and 4 cucumbers (pot to pot + 3 inches). I got a yield of 9 full size cucumbers already. I spray 1:9 milk/water every 25 days (am I doing ok?). But was not using any fungicide/insecticide. Of-late I am using a 90% neem oil and a 0.03 (300 ppm) Azadirachtin spray at 3 ml per liter (0.26 gallon) water. But yet the bitter gourds have holes on it.. I caught a caterpillar redhanded biting into a bitter gourd. I sprayed some neem at 3ml/liter - lets see what happens in the morning.applestar wrote:Cucurbita are prone to fungal diseases and these look like some advanced cases.
Make sure they have good ir circulation -- since they are in pots, move them away from structure and each other. Cut off and dispose of badly affected leaves so they don't spread, and spray clean and slightly affected leaves with one of the following organic fungicides -- hydrogen peroxide, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) solution, or neem oil solution; alternate with milk solution to encourage beneficial bacterial colonization. (post which ones you want to use and we can discuss ingredients and details).
So the way I made my soil was 33% compost, 33% soil, rest coconut fibre shreds. I also put in DiAmmonium Phosphate. Is that wrong? I topped up using normal soul because I thought the roots were exposed!! Stupid me!applestar wrote:Looking at the brinjal (aubergine/eggplant) pot, the soil medium appears to be straight garden soil. This would be dense and slow draining. Any plants in containers need well draining medium -- 25-30% coarse sand/small gravel/shredded bark or root or nutshell mulch -- should be bended in.
The cucumber is in 12" pots, Brinjals are in 18", 14" and 12" - I wanted to measure the growth.. Will share that too tomorrow.applestar wrote:The cucurbita and brinjal need very large containers -- these don't look big enough, so this might be a good chance to uppot in better soil mix with aged manure/straw in the bottom for extra feed.
Will put in a close up snap too.. could the neem mix I use fix it ?applestar wrote:Spots on the cauliflower could be sucking insects on the other side, but be aware that cauliflower is a cool season crop plant and by the time cucurbita and brinjal are growing well, it is usually too hot.
Perhaps its the climate here.. The flowers got pollinated last month.. It seems to have some leaf curls.. Will try a closeup tomorrow.. Its being grown in an 18" pot.. with great drainage and water retention using coco-peat.. am I doing it well ?applestar wrote:The lemons look great -- I wish mine would do as well.
imafan26 wrote:I see leaf miners and the moringa and eggplant look like they were over watered. Dirt is not a good choice in pots because it does not have enough air space for roots to breathe. Pots especially plastic and glazed ceramic cannot breathe and usually do not have enough drain holes. When dirt in pots are watered they expand and take up what little air space there is, water puddles on top and drains poorly. Roots need air to breathe. Back off on the watering and if the roots are not dead they may recover. If they do, then transplant to a pot with potting soil and use pots with lots of drain holes on the bottom and the sides.
There looks to be some fungal diseases as Apple said.
The holes in the leaves can be from slugs, or beetles.
I found a good link below that might help with identifying the problems.
https://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id91/id91.pdf
If that's what you have in the pots, it sounds pretty good but I would have added sand or gravel or something (Pumice gravel, perlite, composted bark chips) to increase drainage.... Unless the compost had unscreened larger bits like half decomposed nut and eggshells, sticks, fruit pits, seashells, crab/lobster shells.... Those bits and pieces are in my compost.)So the way I made my soil was 33% compost, 33% soil, rest coconut fibre shreds. I also put in DiAmmonium Phosphate. Is that wrong? I topped up using normal soul because I thought the roots were exposed!! Stupid me!
I think restarting is a great chance to improve my trellis too ! Will post more pics in 37 days !rainbowgardener wrote:You've gotten really good advice already and I don't have much to add. But it looks like the soil in your pots probably settled. They could all use to be "topped off." Not only does that give the plants more soil to draw from, but especially for young ones like the eggplant, it keeps them from sitting down in the shade and air circulation barrier of the pot.
But top off with whatever potting mix you were using in the rest of the pot. If your soil is clayish, as it looks, spreading a layer of that on top of your potting mix just acts like a seal.
Personally, I wouldn't put any garden soil in smallish pots like that, just fine-textured compost, the coco-fiber, and some of the kinds of things applestar was suggesting for keeping air and water channels, which could also be perlite, rice hulls, crushed lava rock, etc.
Nothing much that you spray on the leaves will take care of leaf miner larvae, which are protected inside the layers of the leaves. Just pull the leaves or the part of it with the critter in it as applestar suggested and dispose of it.
For future reference if you can find lambsquarters, columbine, or velvetleaf, they are good trap crops for the leaf miners. Lambsquarters is a common weed [where I am]. Velvetleaf is a wildflower. Mine came from a packet of mixed wildflower seed. Columbine is a very pretty shade plant. I have velvetleaf that pops up around my property ever since I planted the wildflower seed (everything else died out). The leaf miners love the soft leaves of the velvet leaf and leave everything else alone. I just have to keep pulling the squiggled leaves off the velvetleaf.
I don't know if any of those grow where you are, so you might have to ask around if there are local plants that work as trap crops for them..
imafan26 wrote:I don't worry too much about leaf miners myself. By themselves the damage is mostly cosmetic. They are the larva of flies. Squishing the larvae in the leaf does work, but it is really hard to catch the adult flies. I would not use systemics on anything I eat. However the trap plants are a good idea and I have used fine netting, tulle from the fabric store as a barrier against fruit flies and that could also work against leaf miners.
imafan26 wrote:I prefer to plant in 20 inch pots they are less prone to drying and falling over in the wind and tomatoes and eggplant have large root systems. I can also plant a bout 6 cucumber or bean vines in a 20 inch pot and still plant lettuce in the pots when the other plants are still small.
